Sunny Ledfurd: The White Disk

“SL you guys rock, i love guys and i just wanted to say when you guys get big PLEAZ dont chang cuz most singers, groups, and bands change when they get famous and you guyz are awsome so dont ever change i feel you guyz through your music and i feel where ya’ll are comin from — I love you guyz! ~*Dont Change!*~”

“I saw you guys in NY, i think you guys kicked ass i talked to the DJ later on and he was so cool, and so sexy.”

“All the songs by SL are kick ass… What did you guys like best about SL’s show? I liked the fact that they were so friendly and hung out with everyone AND their muzik totally kicked ass!! It was just an awesome show all together!!”

— various Sunny Ledfurd fans as quoted on the S.L. message board.

It’s time to sit down and enjoy some bangin’ tunes by Sunny Ledfurd, a charming group of young men who have formed to create another backwards-baseball-hat-wearing, misogynist-approved musical group guaranteed to offend the bitchez and hizzos from the West Side to the East. Move over, Limp Bizkit. Step outta the way, Alien Ant Farm (unless you wanna be stepped to, Holmes). Sunny Ledfurd is here and they want their 15 seconds of fame, too!

These boys are serious. Open up the CD sleeve and check ’em out. Look at those scowls across their faces. No, there isn’t going to be any smiling around here. Not when there’s 40s to drop and skanks to be “hitting” in that party goin’ on in the background. Yeah, I’m down with that shiznit. Unfold the sleeve to see the dudes slammin’ at a party in the house, y’all. Bizzos passed out in the background, and plenty of brew for all. Yeah, it’s like that. Still no smiles. Nah, no time to be cheery when you’re doin’ the time in Sunny Ledfurd.

And what do I scope behind the CD tray in the case? Awww yeah boieeee. It’s a shot of a beeyotch passed out on the floor with her panties yanked down around her knees. And check out that other honey’s ass peekin’ out of her mini-skirt on the back of the sleeve. Sheeeeit. Well, throw on those Skechers and pull on that Billabong and let’s go bangin’. After all, “you won’t take this album out of the CD player at a party” says vocalist Dugi.

OK, I think I need to take a well-deserved shower after that intro. Yes, here we are with another bad boy group with a routine that is so completely routine that no one should be shocked by any of the band’s antics. After all, they’re just tellin’ it like it is and keepin’ it real. Sure. These guys look like they just stepped out of Journeys at the local mall. But hey, I guess you gotta have some street cred. So drop the smiles, put your hat on backwards and insult every female on the planet with your rinky-dink songs and that should suffice.

Basically, this kind of rap/rock hybrid has already hit a wall. Sure, it still sells, but like everything else these days, the music market has become saturated with this kind of dross, even though the PR folks at MCA Records would have you to believe that “These boys aren’t your everyday rock band, they aren’t your everyday rap group, they are something the music world has never seen or heard before.” To which age bracket is that statement being addressed? Anyone who had even the slightest taste of the popular music of the ’90s will have seen or heard something like Sunny Ledfurd.

So yeah, what you get here is another blend of hip-hop, rock, and rap, all designed to get the booties shaking. Too bad these boys arrived about five years too late. With tunes like “Pills”, “Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy”, and “Hardcore”, we’re treated to a rehash of watered-down bad boy/thug-lite low ridin’ numbers that fail to make any sort of musical impression. Take a band like Limp Bizkit or Bone Thuggs and mix ’em together and you’ll essentially get Sunny Ledfurd. Of course, you’ll also get a clear disgust for females as well. But just remember that these boys are “clearly a product of their environment”.

“See the look when I walk right past ya / Why don’t’cha tell me what you’re lookin’ for? / There’s only one thing I’m gonna ask ya / Why don’tcha drive me to the liquor store? / There comes one of my ladies / And I ain’t fucked with her lately / She thinks I’m her one and only / But I still mess wit’choo baybay” sings Dugi on “Nothing’s Enough”. Zzzzz. So we’re already off to a worn out start. Dissin’ the ladies at the drop of a dime. And the music. Ah the music. A thin backbeat and some cheesy synth strings providing the hard-ass backdrop, then of course the guitars erupt at the right moment to remind you this is “ballin'” rock. “Everything’s comin’ to me…me” sings Dugi in a lower register at dramatic moments in the song. Uh huh. Let the bodies hit the floor, indeed.

On “Scenario” we get to thrill to “It’s just the same old thing, yo / The same scenario / The girl is a bitch but she thinks she’s something more / Crank the bass in my stereo” while the synth strings return to do another tired riff. “Pandemonium” features some faster breakbeats and Sunny’s impersonation of Alien Ant Farm, only with less of an edge. And “Stoli’s O” drops the synth strings in favor of synth horns while Sunny attempt to drop a little ballad for you. But the horn section is so laughable that there’s no taking the rest of the song seriously. Not that anyone actually would.

Prince Paul had a hand in helping to compose “Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy”. All street cred goes completely out the window with this track. One glance at any of the band members here and “pimp” is not a word that comes to mind. These fresh-faced dapper guys look like they just got out of high school. This time, though, the synth supplies the steel drums as the beats do a little shuffle and guitarist Yiber pulls out his acoustic. Ahh, good times, good times! “I hope ya know I can’t wait / To get pussy on a plate / Your little sister’s jailbait…”

Speaking of “jailbait”, Sunny Ledfurd can’t seem to get that idea off their minds as the little track with the same title indicates:

Dugi: Whassup?

Young Female Fan (in determined, yet wooden voice): Yo Dugi, that show was bangin’.

Dugi (impressed, because a real woman would be completely out of the question): Kewl. Hey, uh . . . how old are you?

Young Female Fan (undoubtedly one that will turn into just another “bitch” after the sex): 18.

Dugi (now feeling his oats; “18” is the legal age for something. He knows that much.): Fer real?

Young Female Fan (brainwashed from the Sunny Ledfurd show and feeling like she must now put out, or maybe this is just Sunny’s vision idea of the ideal girl. After all, it is their album.): Oh yeah! So when ya gonna let me hit it?

Dugi: Ha!

And there you have it! Sunny Ledfurd, everybody. Three cheers for misogyny! Blah. It’s groups like these that push the country’s sexual mores 50 steps back. Luckily, these guys don’t really have any clout. They’re as believable as T.J. Hooker. No wait, I shouldn’t smear the good name of William Shatner like that. But you get the idea. No one’s taking Sunny Ledfurd seriously, save for maybe the rest of the wannabe 16-year-old “pimps” out there, and even then I’d imagine they’d get tired of this stuff. Especially after the next thug-lite group comes along. File The White Disk under “bad comedy”.